Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.The technology of the North American colonies did not differ strikingly from that of Europe, but in one respect, the colonists enjoyed a great advantage. Especially by comparison with Britain, Americans had a wonderfully plentiful supply of wood.The first colonists did not, as many people imagine, find an entire continent covered by a climax forest....
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
The technology of the North American colonies did not differ strikingly from that of Europe, but in one respect, the colonists enjoyed a great advantage. Especially by comparison with Britain, Americans had a wonderfully plentiful supply of wood.
The first colonists did not, as many people imagine, find an entire continent covered by a climax forest. Even along the Atlantic seaboard, the forest was broken at many points. Nevertheless, all sorts of fine trees abounded, and through the early colonial period, those who pushed westward encountered new forests. By the end of the colonial era, the price of wood had risen slightly in eastern cities, but wood was still extremely abundant.
The availability of wood brought advantages that have seldom been appreciated. Wood was a foundation of the economy. Houses and all manner of buildings were made of wood to a degree unknown in Britain. Secondly, wood was used as fuel for heating and cooking. Thirdly, it was used as the source of important industrial compounds, such as potash, an industrial alkali; charcoal, a component of gunpowder; and tannic acid, used for tanning leather.
The supply of wood conferred advantages but had some negative aspects as well. Iron at that time was produced by heating iron ore with charcoal. Because Britain was so stripped of trees, she was unable to exploit her rich iron mines. But the American colonies had both iron ore and wood; iron production was encouraged and became successful. However, when Britain developed coke smelting, the Colonies did not follow suit because they had plenty of wood and besides, charcoal iron was stronger than coke iron. Coke smelting led to technologic innovations and was linked to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. In the early nineteenth century, the former colonies lagged behind Britain in industrial development because their supply of wood led them to cling to charcoal iron.
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a source of industrial compounds?
A. potash
B. charcoal
C. gunpowder
D. tannic acid
Give the correct form of the words in brackets to finish the passage
An industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily (1.depend)..DEPENDENT.. on certain essential (2.serve)...SERICES...., for instance, electricity supply, water, rail and road transport, the harbors. The area of (3.depend)...DEPENDENCY...... has widen to include removing rubbish, hospital and ambulance services, and, as the (4.economic).ECONOMY.... develops, central computer and information services as well. If any of these services ceases to operate, the whole economic system is in (5.dangerous)...DANGER.....
It is this interdependency of the economic system which makes the power of trade unions such an important issue. Single trade unions have the (6.able)...ABILITY..... to cut off many countries' economic supply. This can happen more (7.easy)..EASILY.... in Britain than in some other countries, in part because the labour force is (8.high).....HIGHLY... organized. About 55 percent of British workers belong to unions, compared to under a quarter in the United States. For (9.history).HISTORICAL..... reasons, Britain's unions have tended to develop along trade and occupational lines, rather than on an distry- by- industry (10.basic)...BASE....